


The Surprise Party Vacillation

by Ultra



Category: The Big Bang Theory (TV)
Genre: Best Friends, Birthday, Birthday Party, F/M, Friendship/Love, Surprise Party, Understanding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-30
Updated: 2012-09-30
Packaged: 2018-07-26 10:46:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7571257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Sheldon's birthday and only Penny seems to understand him.</p>
<p>(Originally written for/prompted by hollymac_79)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Surprise Party Vacillation

Sheldon knew about the party, of course he did, he was that much smarter than all of his friends. It wasn’t that he was being cocky when he thought or said such things, it was just true. Leonard, Howard, and Raj, they understood that Sheldon Cooper was not in the least interested in the kind of party they might throw, or even a variation tailored to him. It was true that he liked to dress up as Spock, but not amongst lower beings in their own idea of impressive costumes. Music was all well and good, but he did not dance unless forced to by his mother. The food they might provide may be to his specification but the very fact he would be required to share with others or consume it after his fellow partygoers had breathed on it was almost too horrible to even consider.

It had to be Amy who came up with the idea of surprising Sheldon with a party for his birthday. He had to give her credit, her plans were as near flawless as any who had tried before to please him with such an event. She had almost succeeded in keeping it quiet too, but Sheldon was just too intelligent not to notice the signs, the smiles, the whispers. Now he must face his doom, and Sheldon hated what he must do just to make his not-quite-a-girlfriend happy.

“Trying to blow a hole in the door with just the power of your mind?” asked Penny, so suddenly that Sheldon physically jumped and barely held in a girlish squeal.

He turned to look back at the blonde who was leaning in her own open doorway with a smirk on her lips. She took great delight in torturing him, he was certain of it. 

“What are you doing there?” he asked her outright. “Why aren’t you at my surprise party?” he followed up with immediately, for fear his first question lacked clarity and would allow for unending sarcasm from Penny.

“Your surprise party that could never be a surprise because it’s you we’re talking about?” she replied, her smirk giving way to a genuine smile now. “Yeah, I figured you’d be standing out here, trying to map out an escape plan or a battle plan or whatever,” she waved her hand in a random gesture, as if amongst the choices she spoke of. “So, what’s it gonna be, Flash?” she referenced the T-shirt he wore that she was now so used to seeing. “Fight or flight?”

He looked impressed that she even knew of the principal, but only allowed himself a moment to dwell on it. Sheldon knew Penny had a point. He had to decide whether to face this party for Amy’s sake, or just bolt and not come back until there was some kind of guarantee that everyone would have left. Sometimes doing something and apologising afterwards was just easier than asking permission, this he had learnt at a very early age.

“Penny...” he turned to look down into her sparkling eyes, becoming oddly distracted from what he had meant to say.

Despite the fact he put intellectual progression above a need to form relationships with women, Sheldon was not completely oblivious to the fact Penny was what the regular people called ‘smokin’ hot’. She was also a very good friend, one of the sweetest and kindest people he had ever met. She took the time to understand him, she cared for him when he was sick, and of all crazy things he had seen her naked. In a lot of ways, all the ways he could think of in fact, he was closer to Penny than he ever was to Amy. It had occurred to Sheldon before, but never so much as right here in this moment. Whilst his so-called girlfriend threw him a party he could never want, Penny knew he would be here, out in the hall, dreading the entire concept of spending his Birthday this way.

“Earth to Spock?” she said then, clicking her fingers in his face. “Seriously, Sheldon, you still in there?”

“Where else would I be exactly?” he rolled his eyes at her as if she were just so tiresome. “Unless I had achieved astral projection or the Buddhist goal of enlightenment, it is unlikely my conscious mind would suddenly exist outside of my physical body,” he told her.

“’Cause I had to ask,” Penny muttered in response, folding her arms over her chest, wondering why she even bothered sometimes.

“Penny, do you have any spaghetti in your house? Perhaps with hot-dogs to cut up and add to a sauce?” asked Sheldon, as much a small child or maybe even a begging dog as he was anything then.

It was wrong to let him into her apartment and pretend there wasn’t a party across the hall just for him. At the same time, was it really fair to let a man who was her friend, perhaps even her best friend, suffer on his own special day?

“Come on in, Birthday Boy. We’ll see what we can find in the kitchen,” she smiled, ushering Sheldon into her apartment.

Of all people, he wanted to spend his birthday with her, she realised with a smile. Maybe the biggest surprise of today was on Penny.


End file.
